s, in speaking of this glorious resurrection period,
to the expressive figure of his Lord before him--"Them also which SLEEP
in Jesus will God bring with Him!" _Sleep in Jesus!_ His saints fall
asleep on their death-couch in His arms of infinite love. There their
spirits repose, until the body, "sown in corruption" shall be "raised in
incorruption," and both reunited in the day of His appearing, become "a
crown of glory in the hand of the Lord, and a royal diadem in the hand
of their God."

Weeping mourner! Jesus dries thy tears with the encouraging assurance,
"Thy dead shall live; together with My body they shall arise." Let thy
Lazarus "sleep on now and take his rest;" the time will come when My
voice shall be heard proclaiming, "Awake, and sing, ye that dwell in
dust." "The winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers
appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds is come, and the
voice of the turtle is heard in the land. Arise, my love, my fair one,
and come away." "Weep not! he is not dead, but sleepeth. Soon shall the
day-dawn of glory streak the horizon, and then I shall go that I may
awake him out of sleep!"

Beautifully has it been said, "Dense as the gloom is which hangs over
the mouth of the sepulchre, it is the spot, above all others, where the
Gospel, if it enters, shines and triumphs. In the busy sphere of life
and health, it encounters an active antagonist--the world confronts it,
aims to obscure its glories, to deny its claims, to drown its voice, to
dispute its progress, to drive it from the ground it occupies. But from
the mouth of the grave the world retires; it shrinks from the contest
there; it leaves a clear and open space in which the Gospel can assert
its claims and unveil its glories without opposition or fear. There the
infidel and worldling look anxiously around--but the world has left them
helpless, and fled. There the Christian looks around, and lo! the angel
of mercy is standing close by his side. The Gospel kindles a torch which
not only irradiates the valley of the shadow of death, but throws a
radiance into the world beyond, and reveals it peopled with the sainted
spirits of those who have died in Jesus."

Reader! may this calm departure be yours and mine. "Blessed are the dead
which die in the Lord. ... They REST." All life's turmoil and tossing is
over; they are anchored in the quiet haven. _Rest_--but not the rest of
annihilation--

"Grave! the guardian of our